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A recent Senate committee hearing on management of used nuclear fuel could pave the way for more formal discussions about the issue in the next session of Congress, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute. The hearing addressed a waste-management bill introduced by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., which seeks to implement the federal blue ribbon commission's recommendations. "I think there's more overlap between the two parties on energy policy than there was a decade ago, and I definitely think nuclear is part of that overlap," said Alex Flint, NEI's senior vice president of government affairs.

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Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff expects to finalize a review of policies on management of used nuclear fuel by September 2014 to comply with a court ruling earlier this year. In the meantime, license-application reviews and hearings will proceed, and final action is "the only licensing milestone that the staff will be unable to complete" before the rules are released, staff said.

A bill proposed by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., should be used as a means to reform the federal government's policy on the disposal of used nuclear fuel, according to the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. The measure calls for the establishment of the Nuclear Waste Administration to manage used-fuel disposal and storage. "You will not be surprised that our primary interest is on fixing the Nuclear Waste Fund," said David Wright, NARUC's president.

The U.S. needs to designate a repository for radioactive waste, Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairwoman Allison Macfarlane said. "No matter whether you go direct disposal of spent fuel or you recycle, you will need a final repository," Macfarlane said during a hearing of two House Energy and Commerce subcommittees. Site selection, however, isn't a task of the NRC, she said.

Nuclear energy advocates in Congress believe it is time to consider other radioactive waste storage options even as some Republicans are working to revive efforts for the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada. "Even if Yucca Mountain were open today, we'd still need a second repository very quickly," said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who is one of the leading supporters of nuclear energy in the Senate. "The stuff we have would fill up Yucca Mountain very quickly," Alexander said during a Senate subcommittee hearing on the federal blue ribbon commission's waste-storage recommendations.

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy responded differently to some aspects of the federal blue-ribbon commission's report on the management of the country's radioactive waste. According to the report, there aren't any viable technological breakthroughs in recycling and reprocessing that would be capable of altering the country's waste-management problems. "G.E.H. does not believe that adequate consideration was afforded to advanced reactor and recycling technologies that could significantly improve the used fuel disposal process," the company said in a statement.